Guides

Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg pushed back against President Donald Trump’s controversial comments about police use of force, sending an email over the weekend to remind staff members to “always act honorably” by maintaining “the very highest standards” for treating criminal suspects.

The memo was in response to Trump suggesting to officers in Long Island that they shouldn’t worry about protecting suspects’ heads while placing them in police vehicles, the Washington Post reports.

“We have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong,” Rosenberg wrote.

Citing some of the agency’s core values – integrity, respect and compassion – Rosenberg said, “This is how we conduct ourselves. This is how we treat those whom we encounter in our work: victims, witnesses, subjects, and defendants. This is who we are.”

He added: “The President, in remarks delivered yesterday in New York, condoned police misconduct regarding the treatment of individuals placed under arrest by law enforcement,” Rosenberg wrote.

The White House maintains that Trump was joking when he suggested in New York last week that police should not “be too nice” to suspects.

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over?” Trump told the officers “Like, don’t hit their head, and they just killed somebody — don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?”